Hyperfiltration modules commonly employ a bundle of elongate, porous tubes lined with semipermeable membranes and fixed in sealed relation within a chamber so that liquid to be filtered is directed in parallel therethrough. A module of this sort in which carbon tube supported semipermeable membranes are used is described in the March 1974 issue of Product Engineering at page 13.
The treating system disclosed in the above-noted copending application preferably includes hyperfiltration units incorporating carbon tube modules of the foregoing sort in which somewhat more than 900 of the carbon tube elements are assembled in each module, and the sealing arrangement of the present invention was developed for assembling the considerable bundle of tube elements in the modules effectively while protecting the relatively fragile carbon tubes from undue stressing.